Keller Williams
Williams at Langerado Music Festival March 9, 2008 Photo: Steve Moyles
Background information
Birth name	Keller Williams
Born	February 4, 1970 (1970-02-04) (age 40) Fredericksburg, Virginia United States
Genres	One-man band, rock, jam, progressive bluegrass, dance, funk, folk, alternative rock, jazz, reggae
Occupations	Musician, Songwriter
Instruments	Vocalist, guitar, bass guitar, percussion, theremin, synthesizer, piano
Years active	1991–present
Labels	SCI Fidelity, Basil Leaf Music
Associated acts	The Keller Williams Incident (The String Cheese Incident with Keller Williams) Umphrey's McGee Yonder Mountain String Band Keller and The Keels The WMDs
Website	http://kellerwilliams.net

Keller Williams (b.February 4, 1970) is an American musician from Fredericksburg, Virginia, who began performing in the early 1990s. He is also known by the names K-Dub or just Keller, when performing. Williams' music combines elements of bluegrass, folk, alternative rock, reggae, electronica/dance, jazz, funk, and other assorted genres. He is often described as a 'one-man jam-band'.¹

Touring

Though primarily a solo artist, Keller has toured with several bands that include Yonder Mountain String Band, String Cheese Incident, Umphrey's McGee and Ratdog.¹ Keller has a audio taping policy of his performances, and for non-commercial trading of the recordings but use of video or flash photography, or any recordings for profit are prohibited.²

Keller Williams Incident

Keller Williams Incident is a collaborative performance between Keller Williams and the String Cheese Incident. They have performed together, and Williams' 1999 album Breathe was released collaboratively as the Keller Williams Incident.

Keller Williams with Moseley, Droll and Sipe

Keller also frequently performs with a backing band as "Keller Williams with Moseley Droll and Sipe". Formed in 2007 as the WMDs, they first played at the Bonnaroo music festival. The group consists of Keller Williams on rhythm guitar, Jeff Sipe on drums, Keith Moseley on bass, and Gibb Droll on lead guitar. They changed their name from the WMDs in 2008.³

Instruments

A self-taught musician, he usually performs with an acoustic guitar connected to Gibson Echoplex Delay system, which allows him to play a riff once on his instrument, record, and repeat it. This lets him play unaccompanied and include a variety of instruments in his shows.

His main guitars used are a Martin HD-28 and D-35, an Alvarez/Joe Veillette MTB baritone, a Rick Turner baritone 12-string, a Tacoma Thunderhawk, an early 50's tempo and a Gordon Anderson custom 8-string.⁴

Other Projects

Keller currently hosts the radio show Keller's Cellar which has a live online stream and is pre-recorded at Wally Cleaver's in Fredericksburg, VA.⁵ Keller recently started the "Once a Week Freak", on his website where every week he had released a new song from his new 2009 album "Odd". Upon release of every single song on the album, he released the entire album in a single download. And due to the large success of this idea, Keller has now chosen to keep the "Once a Week Freek" project going and releases a new song/video or two each and every week, usually on wednesday. These tracks consist of live performances of previously recorded songs, unreleased covers of other bands' songs, or just different renditions of his own recorded music.

It was announced that Keller will be playing as a member of the Rhythm Devils with Grateful Dead drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart at the Gathering of the Vibes festival in 2010. It is currently unknown if this lineup will be touring or performing any additional dates.

Discography

Albums

Keller Williams on February 3, 2006 at the Ridgefield Playhouse

• Freek (1994)
• Buzz (1996)
• Spun (1998)
• Breathe (1999) - (with String Cheese Incident as Keller Williams Incident)
• Loop (live) (2001)
• Laugh (2002)
• Dance (2003)
• Home (2003)
• Stage (double live) (2004)
• Grass (2006) - (with The Keels as Keller & The Keels)
• Dream (2007)
• 12 (2007)
• Rex (Live at the Fillmore) (digital download) (2008) - (with Jeff Austin and Keith Moseley as Grateful Grass)
• Odd (2009)

Compilations

• High Times Presents Rip This Joint - Various Artists (2001)

Guest appearances

• The J. Case Show - Julian Casellas (2010)
• Seeds - Martin Sexton (2007)
• Chateau Benares - Sanjay Mishra (2006)
• Collision - DJ Harry (2004)
• On The Road: 04-14-02 Ann Arbor, MI - String Cheese Incident (2002)
• On The Road: 04-13-02 Chicago, IL - String Cheese Incident (2002)
• Solar Igniter — Modereko (2001)

Videos

• Sight (2005, DVD)

References

External links

• Official Site
• Live recordings by Keller Williams at the Internet Archive
• Keller Williams downloads at JamRadio.org
• Keller Williams - Talk by Tim Newby, from HonestTune.com